His date seems to be one of the few clearly established dates in the history of the religion of the country. Stanza 19 shews that he was a contemporary of another great early Saivite, whose name means "Little Servant of God," and who is known to have fought in a battle which took place in 642 A.D.

We begin with the first verse which the author composed. According to the legends he uttered it at the age of three, on the banks of the temple tank at Shiyali (once Bramapuram), after Siva's consort had fed him with milk from her own breast. The stanza itself of course contains no allusion to the story, but it is one of the best known verses in the Saivite hymnbook.

1. His ears are beringed, He rideth the bull;
His head is adorned with the crescent moon's ray; White is He with ash from the burning-ground swept;
And He is the thief who my heal t steals away. Great Brahma enthroned on the lotus' full bloom
Erstwhile bowed him down and His glory extolled, And singing received he the grace of our lore
Who dwelleth in famed Bramapuram old.

No pilgrimage in South India is more popular than that to Tiruvannamalai in North Arcot, the temple by a hill celebrated in many poems. Saivism has tried to express the existence of the 'eternal feminine' in deity by giving Siva a lady who not only is His consort, but is actually a part of Him, and is so represented in many images, which show Siva as masculine on one side and feminine on the other.

2. He is our only Lord, conjoined still
To her whose breast no sucking lips have known.
They who in Annamalai's holy hill,
Where falling waters noisy chatter down,
And the hill glistens gem-like, bow before
Our great one who is lord and lady too,
Unfailingly for them shall be no more
Dread fruit of good and bad deeds they may do.

One of the first puzzles to a student of Saivism is the way in which each of the numerous shrines seems to be spoken of as if it were Siva's exclusive abode. The broad river marked on English maps as the Cauvery, but in Tamil called the Kaviri, which brings so much blessing to a large part of South India that the respect in which it is held is not difficult to understand, is fringed throughout its length with shrines which are believed to confer the blessings of Siva on all who visit them. One of these is 'Neyttanam,' 'Place of Ghee.'

3. So ye but say Neyttanam is the home
Of our great Lord who wears in his long hair
The crescent moon, the river, and the snake,
Neyttanam where chaste maidens gather fair,
On the north bank of Kaviri's loud stream,
Your vileness, guiltiness, the sin you dread,
Your sorrows many, shall be banished.